The present invention relates to a cooking utensil which can be held in an inverted upright state.
When a cooking utensil, such as a ladle, rice paddle, turner, or the like, is not being used temporarily during cooking, a problem arises in terms of where to place the utensil. For example, if soup in a saucepan is stirred using a ladle and is then to be heated further, the ladle is either left in the pan or it is placed on a worktop, or the like, in the kitchen. However, if the ladle is left inside the pan, then the grip portion of the ladle may become hot due to the heat from the heat source of the burner, or the like, which is transmitted upwards along the outer sides of the pan, and it may become impossible to touch the grip portion of the ladle, or the grip portion may even be melted by the heat. Moreover, if the ladle is left on a worktop in the kitchen, it takes up free space and is liable to roll over due to poor positional seating, and therefore it may interfere with other tasks. Furthermore, since liquid adhering to the bowl portion of the ladle may spill on to the worktop, the worktop is liable to become soiled.
In order to resolve these problems, a ladle has been proposed which comprises a flat portion formed in the base of the bowl portion thereof, in such a manner that the ladle can be stood upright with the bowl portion being in a downward position. This allows the ladle to stand in an upright state in the center of a pan, or to stand in an upright state on top of a worktop, for example. However, standing the ladle in the center of the pan is not suitable in cases where, for example, a lid must be placed on the pan, and furthermore, if the ladle is stood on top of a worktop, then the bowl portion which comes into direct contact with food will touch the surface of the worktop and hence problems of hygiene arise. In order to resolve such problems, it has been proposed that the ladle is used in combination with a ladle receiving dish, whereby the ladle is held upright in the receiving dish, but this increases the number of components and the complexity of the device.
Similar problems also apply to a turner, and the like, although in the case of a utensil having a plate-shaped head portion, such as a turner, or the like, it is not possible to stand the utensil in an upright position as described above.
The present invention was devised with the foregoing problems in view, and aims to provide an invertably standable cooking utensil which occupies reduced space when stood temporarily, and which resolves problems of hygiene by preventing dispersal of liquid adhering to the head portion of the utensil when the utensil is stood in an inverted state with the head portion in an upward position and the grip portion in a downward position.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an invertably standable cooking utensil is provided which comprises a shank portion, a head portion, a supporting member formed at an end section of the shank portion for holding the cooking utensil in an inverted upright state with the head portion in an upward position, and a liquid receiving member formed on the shank portion.